When someone copies your Hub, does it actually hurt your Hub?

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   NateB11posted 11 years ago

   Here's why I ask: Google indexes the oldest version. Yours. It ignores the copy, then, it seems. However, I am concerned. I discovered some time ago two of my Hubs, copied, and put on another website. If I remember correctly, though, it had all the information about where the Hub came from; one reason why I didn't do anything about it. I figured it was like syndication, in a weird way. My reasoning was the same as what I've said: That Google indexes the original anyway and ignores the other; and it actually gave me and HP credit, mainly by keeping the whole thing intact with info about where the piece came from (I might have to look those copies up again to see if I'm right about that, but that's how I remember it. I think what it was is that they left the links within the Hub to my other Hubs). Here's why I got concerned: Traffic for one those Hubs had dropped at some point. It used to get a lot of traffic; it still gets regular traffic but not as much as before. I blamed this on other things; loss of interest, etc. Could it be because of the copied versions on that other site? Also, am I way off on that thing about Google indexing the original and so there being not much to worry about? Let me know. Thanks in advance.

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      wildernessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      You are mistaken that Google ignores the stolen duplicate.
      
      The best and most common method of finding stolen material is to do a google search for a snippet of text.  When you find it you have found a copy, and an indexed copy at that or you wouldn't find it.
      
      In addition, google will often (maybe always?) nick your standing in the SERP's if there is a duplicate out there.  I've seen it too many times; traffic for a specific hub begins to fall, I check the SERP's to find I've fallen and find a duplicate.  File the DMCA's and get it removed; my hub regains it's position in a month or three.
      
      Plus, of course, any search engine traffic at all, for any odd ball keywords, that ends up on the duplicate should be on your hub instead.  That hurts.
      
      Fail to protect your copyright and you WILL pay a price for that negligence.

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         NateB11posted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Okay, good to know. I will be filing to get the duplicates removed.

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            NateB11posted 11 years agoin reply to this

            There's a blog on Blogger that takes a snippet, first few lines of a Hub, and pastes it to a post and puts a url to the Latest Hubs page. It's called softmania4u dot blogspot dot com. (Trying not to put a link to it). Can this be a problem? A few lines from a Hub? This isn't the site I was talking about before, by the way. The other site copied the whole text.

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   tirelesstravelerposted 11 years ago

   My hub, stolen in April, has never recovered to it's prior level despite goggles rapid response to my complaint.

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      wildernessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I find that it generally takes months.  I've had hubs stay low for 6 months or more.
      
      There is still hope, in other words.  Google is not as quick as it should be at de-indexing articles, nor at "de-pandaizing" a hub.

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